


Those Who Wait

by ISeeFire



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Lawyers, Modern AU, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22858342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ISeeFire/pseuds/ISeeFire
Summary: Prompt request created by @gingerly-writing on Tumblr: "You want to steal a kiss from me? You had better be one hell of a thief.”The thief grinned."Requested by @lottelorelei
Relationships: Bilbo Baggins/Fíli, Female Bilbo/Fili
Comments: 20
Kudos: 165





	Those Who Wait

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LotteLorelei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LotteLorelei/gifts), [StrictlyNoFrills](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/gifts).
  * Inspired by [You've got to take a little dirt to keep what you love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842229) by [StrictlyNoFrills](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/pseuds/StrictlyNoFrills). 



> I wasn't able to get a chapter done this week so here's a drabble instead! :D :D
> 
> The line “Hello?”…who’s there? Like a serial killer is just going to respond and say, ‘hey, I’m in the kitchen, want a sandwich?” is lifted and adapted from a meme I’ve seen floating about the internet and is not mine.

“Freeze! Hands where I can see them!”

On the other side of the room, an out of place shadow paused for a second, and then darted to the left. Fili swore and shifted his aim, gun pointed directly at the vase set on top of it, from the Qing Dynasty if he correctly remembered the small plaque attached to the front. 

He took a few steps closer, and took cover behind another pedestal, this one housing an especially fancy looking necklace. This particular wing of the museum was currently home to a traveling exhibit entitled “The Seven Jewels of the Ancient World.”

In other words, very expensive, very irreplaceable and if he damaged one the museum directors would probably put a hit out on him.

The ear-splitting alarm cut off mid-shriek and the flashing strobes settled into a dim, emergency style lighting.

“Ugh, finally,” a female voice said from behind the pedestal with the vase. “I was getting a migraine.”

“That’s the least you’re going to get if you don’t come out from there, with your hands up, immediately.”

“Ooo,” her voice took on a silky tone. “Are you propositioning me, Officer?”

Fili’s hands tightened on his gun. “I’m not a cop. I’m a security guard.” He hesitated, eyes darting to the left for a moment. “Impersonating a cop is illegal so…so I’m not a cop…” his voice trailed off and he mentally kicked himself. “Whatever, just come out and give up already.”

“No sense of humor at all,” she said, voice falsely dramatic. “How about this? You lower the gun and I come out and steal a kiss from that pretty face of yours?”

Fili rolled his eyes. “You barely even saw me,” he got out through gritted teeth and then immediately cursed himself. Idiot, that had been the cue.

It was just…just that he knew if he said it that would be it.

The moment would end.

He didn’t want it to.

“I saw enough,” she said, giving him a second opportunity without missing a beat. “You gotta love a man in uniform, and you looked especially pretty under the strobes.”

She sounded sad but determined. Fili closed his eyes and counted to five. Each number felt like it took an eternity, but it was still over far too quickly. “You want to steal a kiss from me?” he challenged. His fingers tightened on the gun and he tried to swallow down a suddenly dry throat. Forcing the next series of words out felt like dragging razors up through his throat, one by one. “You had better be one hell of a thief.”

He opened his eyes, and she was standing in plain sight, framed in the doorway. The vase from the pedestal was dangling from her fingertips and her black clothing and mask blended into the darkness from the room behind her.

“Maybe next time, Officer Security Guard.” She gave him a smartass salute, gloved fingers barely touching her forehead, and then she was spinning to vanish through the portal behind her.

Fili let out a breath as if he’d been punched in the gut and then, without hesitation, squeezed off two shots. Both impacted the concrete wall next to the door, well after she’d already gone through it.

He started off in pursuit, making a show of searching the building until the police arrived. In what felt like an otherworldly experience he gave his statement, behaved appropriately saddened when the museum director fired him on the spot, turned in his badge and weapon and left the building.

It was full night outside, the black broken only by the flashing lights of the police cars parked out front. He strode past them and, with every step, the numbness inside him fell away, to be replaced by anger.

By the time he’d made it the four blocks to the dark van sitting quietly beneath a broken streetlight he was enraged. He crossed the deserted street, barely noticing a stray dog wandering past, or the clink of bottles as something moved through a nearby alleyway.

He reached the passenger side of the van, wrenched the door open and got inside. He slammed the door behind him and started stripping out of the uniform shirt.

“She got away fine, Fili. There’s no reason to--”

“Don’t. Speak to me,” Fili snapped. “I don’t want to hear from you for the next two months.”

Dwalin sighed and tightened his hands on the steering wheel, leather crackling under his fingers. The radio on his belt crackled but he made no attempt to answer it.

Fili shoved the shirt into a bag and yanked out the dress shirt, suit jacket and tie that made up his normal attire. He pulled them on and then yanked off the cheap hat he wore, along with the bald cap underneath it. It looked idiotic but it’d been a requirement of them allowing him to be the one to play the security guard. As he if he’d have trusted anyone else to do it.

He ran a hand over his jaw, still unused to being cleanshaven. It’d grow back fast enough, once again helping to identify him as Fili Durin, nephew to the mayor. Nephew to the most powerful man in the city, and yet he’d never felt so helpless as he did right then. 

“She agreed—” Dwalin tried again, only to cut off as Fili held up a hand.

“She agreed,” he said sharply, “to please _you_.” He threw the bald cap and hat down and focused on the road outside the windshield. “Drive.”

“Fili—”

“ _Drive_.”

Dwalin scowled but jammed the key into the ignition. The engine roared to life, shattering the silence, and they pulled away from the curb. As they passed under a streetlight, the yellow light flashed on the badge Dwalin wore pinned to his uniform.

A badge that symbolized Dwalin’s oath to serve and _protect_.

Just not everyone, apparently.

Fili’s lips twisted and he turned his attention out the windshield once again.

He hadn’t committed a crime, hadn’t been arrested but, for the next two months, he’d be serving a sentence regardless.

And he wouldn’t be the only one.

***

Fili shoved his front door opened, took a single step in and let his briefcase drop on the entryway tiles with a thud. He shut his eyes, dropped his head back and let out a groan.

He _hated_ tax evasion cases.

They were just so… _boring_.

The beeping of the security alarm was irritating, so he opened his eyes and went to enter the passcode. Then he flicked the light on, dispelling some of the gloom from the living room.

It was so quiet, another thing he hated. A month and a half and he still wasn’t used to it, probably never would be.

He shook his head as if he could physically dislodge the direction his thoughts were going. It was better off not thinking about it. He’d just drive himself mad wondering, worrying.

He shrugged his jacket off and threw it on the couch, before loosening his tie and whipping that off as well.

He was just toeing his shoes off when a noise came from upstairs.

Fili froze and his heart jolted in his chest. What?

His eyes went to the alarm panel, silently reminding him that, yes, it had been armed and, yes, he had shut it off when he’d come in.

“Hello?” He moved to stand at the foot of the staircase, eyes on the darkened landing at the top. “Is anybody there?”

Silence, and then a second sound. A quiet thud that seemed to come from the master bedroom.

Fili scowled. Perhaps it was the neighbor’s cat again. There was a tree outside the bedroom window and, if it wasn’t closed well enough, the animal had a habit of creeping in. More than once, Fili had returned home to find it lounging in various areas of the house as if it lived there.

He let his shoulders sag and then, resigned, began to trek up the stairs. Chasing a cat through his house was not the way he’d hoped to spend his evening.

He made it to his bedroom and flicked the light on. His eyes roved over the queen-sized bed, matching end tables and dressers.

The room was empty.

Fili let out a growl of frustration and entered the room. “I’m really not in the mood for this tonight,” he said out loud, hoping to startle the cat into revealing its location.

“Really?” a voice said from behind him, near the closet. “That’s too bad.”

A hand landed on his shoulder and Fili reacted without thinking, exactly as he’d been trained. He reached back to grab the intruder’s wrist, spun and, in one move, threw them onto the bed. Before they could react, he was over them, pinning their wrists to the mattress, knees on either side of their hips.

He looked down, prepared to come up with…some kind of quippy retort…and stopped in shock. “Bilba?”

Underneath him, Bilba smiled brightly. She was wearing a simple, lavender silk negligee and her hair was loose, chestnut waves spilling about her.

She was the single most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Hello?” she asked him with a dry expression. “Who’s there? Like a serial killer is just going to respond and say, ‘hey, I’m in the kitchen, want a sandwich?’ Way to give away your location, idiot.”

Fili stared at her, not believing his eyes. “Bilba,” he repeated slowly. “What? I mean – how?”

Then, before she could answer, he simply released her hands to wrap them around her and hug her, hard. He buried his face in her neck and struggled not to lose it completely. “You have no idea how worried I’ve been. Thank God.”

Her arms wound around him and she began to lightly stroke his hair. “I’m sorry,” he heard her whisper. He pulled back and she gently touched his face, running her fingers over his beard and back into his hair. “I got done early. I thought I’d surprise you.”

“And you’re done?” Fili asked, a near desperate tone in his voice. He needed her to be done before he let his emotions go any further. He _needed_ her to be done. It was bad enough worrying about her in her day to day job. He’d thought he could handle this, that it would simply be more of the same. He’d never been so wrong. “No more undercover work?”

“No more undercover work,” she said gently. “It’s done.”

She tugged him down and kissed him, lightly at first, and then harder, before pulling away to smile at him. “Looks like I managed to steal a kiss after all.”

“I don’t know,” Fili said, managing a weak chuckle as his mind struggled to process that the long nightmare of the last month and a half was finally _over_. He forced an unsteady smile. “Stealing suggests an unwillingness on my part.”

“Ooo, naughty Mr. Prosecutor.” Bilba looped her arms loosely around his neck. “I wouldn’t admit to kissing a thief if I were you, might hurt your career.”

Fili chuckled, a small one, but genuine. “In that case, I plead the fifth.”

“Wise choice.” Bilba went back to lightly tracing her fingers along his face, played them along his neck and shoulders and then pressed her palm to his chest just over his heart. “I missed you. I’m sorry I was gone so long.”

“As long as you’re back now,” Fili said with fervor.

“I am,” Bilba grinned and wiggled herself down into the mattress until she was comfortable. “They’re giving me a few days off before I have to go back. I thought perhaps you could use some of those vacation days you keep accumulating and we could spend them together?”

Fili responded by kissing her. She let out a happy sound, wrapped one arm around his shoulders and slid the other behind his head, fingers tangling in his hair.

The second it was morning he could call in and take the next several days off. Then, maybe, _just_ maybe, he would consider forgiving Dwalin for dragging his wife into this mess in the first place.

 _Maybe_.


End file.
